Vietnam’s airlines reopen international flights to 20 countries, territories

Passengers queue to complete procedures at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoii. — VNA/VNS

HANOI (Vietnam News/Asia News Network): Vietnam has reopened international routes to and from 20 countries and territories, said Trần Bảo Ngọc, director of the Transport Department under the Ministry of Transport (MoT).

The country opened international flights to and from 28 countries and territories according to the winter flight schedule applied in 2019.

Specifically, Vietnam's international routes have reopened to countries and territories including Cambodia, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, Taiwan (China), Thailand, and Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Laos, mainland China, France, Germany, UK, Australia, Russia and the US.

The remaining eight countries that have not reopened flights are Brunei, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Macau, Finland, Italy and Switzerland.

The frequency of international routes to and from Vietnam is 370 flights per week per way, equivalent to 53 flights per day per way, while the frequency of international routes in the winter flight schedule in 2019 was 4,185 flights per week per way, meaning 598 flights per day per way.

Ngọc said that following the Government's direction, the MoT has assigned the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam to actively evaluate and discuss with partners’ aviation authorities to resume regular international flights with gradually increasing frequency.

The process ensures safe, flexible adaptation and effective control of the Covid-19 pandemic, creating favourable conditions for travel with guidance on medical supervision on entry.

Regarding domestic transport, Ngọc said, six airlines including Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet Air, Pacific Airlines, Bamboo Airways, Vietravel Airlines and VASCO were operating 56 domestic routes, with a total frequency of 2,570 flights per week per way, which meant 367 flights per day per way.

It is a decrease of two routes and 217 flights per week per way, equivalent to 31 flights per day per way compared to the 2019 winter flight schedule.

“The number of passengers travelling by air has increased significantly, at some periods such as holidays and Lunar New Year, it even caused congestion at some airports. The MoT has directed concerned authorities to deal with the issue,” said Ngọc.

Air transport would continue to maintain and increase the frequency for domestic routes, as well as gradually reopen international routes, he said.

As for road and rail transport, Ngọc said it had basically returned to a new normal situation, but the number of passengers had not recovered.

Some road routes, especially in mountainous provinces, have very few passengers, leading to the problem that transport enterprises cannot organise normal work for some routes.

The MoT will continue to have solutions to improve service quality, attract passengers to use various types of road, rail and waterway transport, thereby returning to normal services.